A comparison of the early impact of government restriction and risk perception on tourist attraction demand during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT By collecting the daily visit data of each 5A scenic spot in China from January 1 to March 31, 2020, this paper adopted a two-way fixed-effects model to calibrate the effects of government restriction and risk perception during the pandemic. Results show that a 1% increase in government restriction level led to a 0.806% decrease in daily tourist attraction demand, while a 1% rise in individuals’ risk perception resulted in a 0.084% decline. The extent of these declines moderated by factors such as GDP, population density, urbanization rate, and attraction type. The implications of these findings are discussed.